Budapest Régiségei 39. (2005)

Zsidi Paula: Uralkodó képmása egy aquincumi téglatöredéken = Imperial portrait on a brick fragment in Aquincum 187-204

ZsiDi PAULA however differs from the rest of Pannonian ones partly in its technique and in its artistic level and content. It is a brick from the late-Roman cemetery of the south-eastern cemetery of Intercisa that is closest to our one. Its inscription mentions three emperors of the tetrarchy reigning between 293 and 305: Diocletian, Maximian and Constantine. However, on the sketches drawn next to the inscription it was only the two earlier augusti depicted, known for their persecution of Christians, which shows light on the political implications of the drawing. Our depiction, too, made by an almost identical technique, has the ruler as its object. But its style, thoughtful composition, and the portrait-like presentation show the skill, and the perceptible eyes of its master and at the same time reflect on the needs of the owner, the user. So far there had ben a single significant brick-sketch from Aquincum, from the ruins of the palace of the procurator destroyed at the end of the 3

rd century. The deciphering of the originally pagan, so called Rotas- formula, taken up by Christians, too, provides experts with further tasks. It is helpful in interpreting the use of our brick in Aquincum if we survey the characteristic features and religious state of the finding site, the civil town of Aquincum in the first half if the 4

Hn century. It can be observed that there had been significant changes in the composition of the leadership of the town and the order of religious rites, that coincide with the increasing appearence of groups of people of eastern descent. Behind the perceptible changes taking place in the order of rites of the local administration, religious changes were taking place. "The ancient, polytheist auguration after 325, still under Constantine I was abolished in the council board of the town. Christian councillors, becoming the majority in the offices did not endure any more pagan rites offending their faith" There is no doubt that in Aquincum, too, the main competitor of the spreading Christianity in was the cult of Mithras. In the beginning of the 4

th century it was only the Symphorus mithraeum on the southern side of the civil town that was still in use from among the Mithras shrines - in the neighbourhood of which our brick was found. This fact meets the supposition that christian communities in the civil town of Aquincum are to be found in the neighbourhood of the Mithraei. Thus, in the light of our new find it cannot be excluded that the demolishing of the cultic equipment of the Symphorus mithraeum and the cessation of the practices of the cult happened around the middle of the 4

th century, when a building near the shrine was inhabited by a community honouring the emperor favouring Christians. The question, however, whether this community held - legally already permited - meetings at the site, is still unsolved. 198